Bay of Plenty won the Hawke Cup for the fourth time, when they battled through the last two days of the Hawke Cup Direct Challenge against Hamilton, smashing a number of records on the way.

The home side won the toss and elected to bat, on what looked to be a good batting strip at Galloway Park in Hamilton.

Hamilton made a solid start and reached 54 without loss, before Dale Swan took a catch of the bowling of Ben Williams to take the first Bay of Plenty wicket.

Hamilton then knuckled down when Mitchell Santner came to the crease and was 103/1 at lunch, with Santner leading the way with 58 runs.

The breakthrough came in the first few overs after lunch, when Brent Hampton grabbed the wickets of Santner for 60 followed by the Hamilton skipper for 17, to turn the momentum in the Bays favour for the first time.

When danger man Anton Devcich was caught by Hampton from the bowling of Mitch McCann, the home side was 173/5.

However, two middle order partnerships turned the momentum Hamilton's way, before the Bay bowlers struck back to remove the Hawke Cup holders for 255.

Brett Hampton did the damage at the top of Hamilton batting attack taking 3/53, while Tony Goodin removed the tail to finish as the Bays top wicket taker returning 4/74.

When stumps were removed on day one, the Bay had reached 24 without loss. The last two days belonged to the Bay side, who batted their way through 196 overs, to post a new Hawke Cup total of 701 all out.

Joe Carter, set a fresh BOP all time batting highest score when he blasted 187 runs, to pass Simon Winters record of 181, set in a Hawke Cup title defence against Central Otago in 1997.

However the record stood just a couple of hours, when Brent Hampton surpassed Carters heroics to smash 194 runs.

Bharat Popli fell one run short of a century when he was dismissed for a highly creditable 99, with Mitch McCann posting 69 runs.

Several new BOP partnership records were forged during the three day fixture. Carter and Popli put on 208 for the second wicket and Carter and Hampton set new figures for the fifth wicket with 166, with Hampton combining with McCann for the sixth wicket to produce 144 runs.

Hawke Cup – Day One results are:

Hamilton 255 (MJ Santner 60, JG Hatwell 48, AM Dodd 46, OG Ivins 29, AP Devcich 27; TG Goodin 4/74, BR Hampton 3/53)

Bay of Plenty 701 (Brent Hampton 194, Joe Carter 187, Bharat Popli 99, Mitch McCann 69)

Result; Bay of Plenty win the Hawke Cup by way of first innings points.